God of War: Daughter of War

Kratos and Flurry discovered that they had to cross over a few fragmented gaps, along with climbing up two rock walls, all to glide over to what appeared to be the entrance of the massive structure that was in front of them, not a temple, like they were expecting, rather it was more like a palace. It was an imposing place, which would no doubt inspire fear into the hearts of mortals if someone was able to make it this far in their quest, and there were two large statues outside, one of a god and one of a titan holding a hand towards the structure, statues in the form of Zeus and Cronos. Flurry knew it was designed to show their control over the rest of the beings that ruled over Greece, both in the ancient age and the current age, that all bow to the Fates, and her father frowned as he glanced at them for a few seconds, showing that he didn't approve of the statues at all. After taking a few moments to stare at the statues the pair continued towards the physical entrance that was in front of them, keeping their weapons at the ready since they knew it was only a matter of time until the Fate's guardians came to defend this area from intruders.

What was interesting was that no enemies seemed to show up as they looked around the outside exterior, allowing them to find that there was a lever below the ramp that served as the walkway and a handle on part of the lower level to move the main entrance, though as Kratos pulled the lever a number of beast lords and cyclops attacked them. The smaller foes stood no chance against their might, as it was a simple matter to overpower them before using their own axes to slice them apart, just like they had done back when they first encountered them outside Euryale's temple. The few cyclops, on the other hand, were slightly harder to deal with, where both warriors dodged their punches and slashed into their arms or legs, though one fell as Flurry pressed her Gorgons' Eye into the monster's eye, turning it to stone so she could shatter it. Once their foes were taken care of the pair walked over to where the handle was located and Kratos started to move it, only to discover that there were more and Flurry joined her father in moving the main door around for a time.

After reaching a certain point the handles stopped and the walkway raised back into place, allowing them to enter what looked to be a large chamber with a hole riddled floor, with another opening that was the path forward, to which the pair walked into the area and Kratos pulled the central lever.

What they discovered was that there were several sections where spikes burst out of the holes, came to a stop after they reached a certain point, and returned to their holding area while the walls slowly spun, though the opening revealed what appeared to be safe locations for them to stand in. It didn't look like there were any instances where the entire floor was raised, meaning they wouldn't have to worry about being stabbed to death, though Flurry did pick up a handle that looked like the one in Atlas' area of Pandora's Temple, causing her to collect it since it might be needed later. There were also a number of nymphs that used webs flying around the chamber, no doubt to lock them into place to get them killed, a fact that really didn't matter thanks to the power of their Gorgons' Eyes, allowing Kratos and Flurry to deal with these foes as they waited for the main opening to be revealed. In order to actually stop the wall from moving Kratos had to pull a large square shaped block out of the area that it was resting in, forcing the entire area to come to a stop as the door opened to show them the entrance into what seemed to be the heart of the palace.

The stairs that were beyond that brought them by an area that had some more soldiers that were being torn apart by a few minotaurs, though while both warriors wondered how the men could have gotten here, since there was only one path and it was fractured, neither stopped to help since there was a grated wall between the two passages.

Upon exiting the passage Kratos and Flurry discovered that there was a large platform in front of them, with a statue on either side of a lever that likely extended a bridge to where the massive spire they had seen previously was resting, which told them that there was more work that needed to be done. There was a carving of Boreas to their right, with one of the golden wind horns resting in front of it, like they saw during their quest for Pandora's Box, plus two locked doors that had shapes on their surfaces to represent keys neither of them had on them. With that in mind Kratos walked over to the right side of the area and climbed up a ladder as Flurry kept an eye out for enemies, where he found a small area with a place for the handle to go, causing Flurry to toss it up to him before he connected it to the base. Such a thing allowed him to turn the crank and take down some flames that were in the way, though instead of worrying about the time statue Flurry landed over the Oath Stone once more and he left a copy in his place as they continued to move forward, once more causing him to appreciate having the older artifacts in their arsenal.

After jumping across the platform the pair entered another passage, a circular one this time, and found that there was a steam vent for them to use to get into the air, or at least it would in her father's case since Flurry could do so on her own, and there was a lever for someone to pull to lower a spike gate for a few moments. With that in mind Flurry pulled the lever for her father to get over the gate, and once he was on the other side it wasn't long before she did the same thing, allowing them to head down another portion of the path that had to bring them to one of the keys they needed to move deeper into the palace. The warriors also discovered that there were a few hounds and a couple of undead legionnaires in the way, not that either of them were surprised, which was why both of them hacked their foes apart while Flurry shocked a couple of hounds with lightning, ending them before they could become a major problem. Once those foes were dead Kratos lifted the large carving that was right in front of them out of the way and revealed a new chamber, with an outer area that had a large stone tome on it, though the room didn't have anything important inside it, in fact it seemed more like a simple passage.

Flurry approached the outside tome and found that it was written in a language that not even she understood, despite all of her lessons from all of the other gods, though by glancing off to their right both she and her father found a figure that looked to be a scholar in another structure.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Flurry asked, because if there were scholars here that meant that one of them had to know the language that was on the tome, which had to be the key to understanding what the Sisters wanted, or maybe it was simple instructions they gave to the worthy ones that reached this point.

"Yes. The scholars are the key." Kratos replied, as it was the only thing that made sense, though at the same time he found that a decent sized stone block was hanging in the room both of them had walked through, where he cut it down and just started to push it towards the scholar's location.

As it turned out he was right to do that, as the scholar was resting on a pressure plate and that removing him cause a gate to trap the intruder or intruders until they died, but thanks to the stone block Kratos was able to move it onto the plate so they could keep the gate open. After that he held the scholar over his shoulder as Flurry turned on the satyr warriors and hounds as they charged at them, where she raised her hand and summoned a few variations of her lightning spell at the incoming foes, shocking her enemies with balls and bolts of lightning. The sickle satyrs that jumped up onto the walkway a few seconds later she had a surprise for as she turned them to stone with her Gorgons' Eye, allowing her and her father to smash them to pieces as they made their way over to where the tome was resting. Sure enough that was guarded by more foes, hounds and summoners, so naturally the pair tore into all of them with their weapons and Kratos even ripped one of the latter in half, allowing them to clear out a portion of the area so the scholar would be safe.

Once the area was cleared of enemies, and they were sure of that, Kratos turned towards the scholar and told him that Zeus needed to be stopped, that he was a blight on the rest of Greece and this was their chance to stop him, which was mostly true, though as he tried to convince him of their intentions, without violence, Flurry noticed something. There were grooves in the floor that seemed to form a design that was specific to the Fates, in fact she was sure that it looked like a phoenix, which reminded her of the central peak of this area, the odd spike of earth that seemed to be more than what they were seeing. In the end the scholar refused to betray Zeus and made a move to throw himself off the ledge, which caused Kratos to shake his head as he grabbed the man and forced him to read the tome, and when he resisted his grip he slammed his head into the stone. Flurry had to wonder why people were so willing to throw themselves at whatever stood in Zeus' way, or got out of the way of so they didn't hurt the King of the Gods, though eventually he bent and read what was on the tome, stating that another worthy of the Sisters had arrived and that to prove that the seeker was worthy they were to offer the scholar's life.

Kratos dealt a death blow without delay, allowing the blood to spill out of the scholar and slip into the grooves, while at the same time the wings of the central statue moved before their eyes, showing them that there was more to this area, and it came to an end as both warriors found a female figure, formed out of a bloody mist, floating behind them.

Well done, warrior. With this sacrifice you have proven your resolve to seek out the Sisters of Fate... however, this is but a small step in your quest to gain an audience with us. the figure said, where Flurry found that it was a fair bodied lady who was wearing a toga that was held in place by a metal belt around her waist, while also only covering the right side of her body and exposed her left breast, though she also had black feathered wings.

It was easy for them to tell that this was a magical message for the Sisters, or maybe Lahkesis since she seemed to be the face of the trio, to encourage seekers to continue with their quest, causing them to walk over to the doorway and found that it had one of the keys, a brass ram horn that was curved around in a circle of sorts. With the key in hand Kratos took a moment to force the door it had been resting on into the ceiling so they could enter a new passage, one that brought the pair back to where Flurry had found the thermal vent earlier, only this time everything was switched off. Since there was nothing stopping them the pair quickly headed back outside and returned to the main area of the palace, crossing over to the ram door and inserted the ram key into the lock to unlock it, even though Kratos had to force it into the ceiling so they could move forward. Both warriors discovered that there was a spike wall to their left that would no doubt follow them as soon as they started to move down the passage to the right, though when it didn't start moving they realized this was a trap, as when Kratos reached a certain point another spike wall appeared in front of them, before both came at them at a rather slow speed.

A large number of undead legionnaires also dropped down into the area as well, to kill them or distract them before they had a chance to reach safety, though Flurry set up a barrier between them so they could unleash the sheer power of Atlas' Quake, smashing the enemies that were coming at them without showing any openings to them. After slaughtering what seemed to be a hundred enemies, fifty for each of them, both walls retreated and allowed them to continue on their way, entering a new area that had a path leading to an area with a number of statues, every major Olympian that stood with Zeus on Olympus. Flurry found that it was almost completely accurate, as there was one for Zeus, Hades, Hermes, Helios, Poseidon, and Athena, though based on what she could see it looked like a couple were missing, like Hera for example, and many other slots were empty, likely displaying a power difference in Olympus itself. Athena's statue was lifeless, a fact that told them that their allies either had nothing to say to them or they were incapable of reaching them, for whatever reasons they might have, causing Kratos to tap on what seemed to be a way forward and smashed through part of the wall, revealing another passage for them to use.

This one required hugging the wall in front of them and carefully climbing their way down the passage, as there was no ground below them, though it was fairly easy to do since there were no enemies to worry about, which was followed by Kratos and Flurry jumping down into another chamber. Based on what they could see the Sisters of Fate wanted them to sacrifice enemies by burning them alive, since there were two levers nearby, one on the left side and one on the right side, meaning they would have to stun their foes before burning them. Neither warrior was even remotely surprised by this, as the Sisters seemed to enjoy tormenting people and having sacrifices made in their glory, to which each took a side of the chamber and focused on stunning the enemies that wanted them dead, only to find that it was just sirens. Once enough sirens were sacrificed the wall sunk into the floor and revealed a small chamber that had a large hole in the center, filled with dull red water, not to mention discarded bodies based on what was deeper in the water, causing both warriors to just say nothing as they dove into the water.

It didn't take them too long to reach the end of the watery passage, though when they reached the end the pair jumped out into what appeared to be an icy chamber full of ice crystals, frozen walls, and even a phoenix statue that was partly encased in ice, causing them to raise their eyebrows as they stepped into the chamber. As they looked around the area they found three cranks that were linked to the outer ring of where the statue was resting, where a number of icons could be seen and, more importantly, brass mirrors that could redirect the flames that would no doubt come out of the statue. In addition to all of that Flurry found that there was a wall that could be unfrozen with just a quick burst of flames from the stalled statue, freeing a circular mirror, which would help them redirect the flames once they freed the statue, or the beams of light that came down from the ceiling. Kratos found that there were some breakable crystals resting on the ceiling and each allowed a bit of light to enter this place when they were broken, which seemed to be the purpose of the spherical mirror, so while he focused on the cranks Flurry moved around and melted most of the ice walls with the item.

Of course she also had to deal with a few minotaurs that were freed from the ice, but she took them down with a burst from her Gorgons' Eye and crushed the statues with the hammer again, before both of them figured out how to free the statue, Flurry had to bounce the light of the sun off the spherical dish off of the plate her father had reassembled, which struck the ice and freed the statue.

Such a thing allowed the pair to free the door leading into another passage and Kratos raised it into the ceiling, allowing him and Flurry to enter a short passage before stopping in a small chamber with a crank in the middle, with nymph nests all over the floor and walls. Neither warrior was even intimidated by what they were seeing, where Flurry used her lightning to blast all of the nests to pieces before focusing on their enemies with her arrows, opening the way for her father to turn the crank for a time as they discovered that it lowered a grapple point into position. With this discovery he made sure Flurry went up into the upper level first and then followed after her, only to discover that it brought them to an area that had a few cerberus hounds inside it, causing Kratos and Flurry to tackle one each so they weren't overwhelmed by their enemies. Kratos stabbed one of the heads with the Spear of Destiny, much to his foe's annoyance, before getting onto it's back and used the chains of his blades to slice off both of the remaining heads, while at the same time Flurry just slashed at her opponent with her sickles before smashing it's main head in with the hammer.

By eliminating both of them as quickly as they could neither warrior had to worry about the smaller hounds coming out and growing up to become more like the larger ones, opening the way for them to climb up a stone ladder they had been guarding, which resulted in walking up to a grated door, forcing it into the ceiling, and dropping down into another part of the winding passage.

At the end of the passage the pair found a gate they could raise by pulling a lever, though at the same time they quickly found that this was where another stone tome and scholar were resting, only the moment the man noticed them coming his way he rushed at the ledge. Flurry wasted no time in stopping him with her magic, allowing her father to open the way as she did so, though that was followed by the scholar not giving them what they wanted and prompted Kratos to do what he did to the other one until he read the tome's information. Following that, which was just about the sacrifice, his life was ended with a quick slash, where they found that the massive phoenix statue spread it's wings and opened it's mouth, all while the blood gathered in the grooves, just like before, and the blood phantom of Lahkesis appeared again. This time her message spoke of finding the ashes of the phoenix so they could find the Temple of the Fates, causing the pair to walk over to the door she beckoned to and Kratos pulled off it's key, a brass skull, though Flurry did notice the painting in the chamber and seemed to be touched by time magic.

Based on what she had seen so far Flurry had to assume that the painting would have allowed them to travel a bit back in time, since the image was of the very chamber they were standing in, something she would have to keep in mind for later, as it might be a warning of things to come.

The next passage was very short, took them five seconds to reach the end, where they found a thermal vent that could be opened on their own, so Flurry quickly turned the crank in front of them and opened the way for her father to reach a very small insert where a lever was located. Such a thing caused the whole vent to be powered, as it released more power than before, allowing her father to reach the ceiling of the area and stab his blades into the material, where he climbed his way to the end of it while Flurry flew through the air and kept an eye on him. The end of it held another small chamber with a single crank, one that caused the platform to sink into the floor as Kratos turned it, and it wasn't long before they came back to the area the main doors were located in, allowing him and his daughter to glide over to the main area once more, only to find a pair of cyclops jumping down to guard it. Such a thing really didn't matter to the pair, not when they hacked into one together and Flurry removed it's head with her sickles, while the other was turned to stone and shattered before it could even fight back, showing their silent observers that they weren't to be underestimated.

A few moments later they unlocked the warrior door and found that it contained a short passage that brought them to a circular platform that Kratos had to forcefully move by grabbing the middle pillar and moving like he was climbing down a ladder, causing the floor to move in the process. While he did that Flurry spun her sickles and dealt with the skeletons that were resting all around them, severing their connection to their bodies so they didn't get back up, allowing her father to work in peace without having to worry about enemies attacking them. In addition to that she readied some of her magic and placed a barrier between them and the ceiling, because there was a spike ceiling coming at them, so this opened the way for her father to get the platform to safety so they could get out of the way. Such a thing allowed him to get them to a door that he forced into the ceiling, allowing them to enter a new portion of the palace and caused Flurry to cancel her spell as they focused on whatever might be waiting for them next.

This portion of the temple was darker than the rest, with satyr warriors and archers guarding the way forward, where the pair did what they always did, Kratos moved along the rope line that was in front of them as Flurry raised her bow and just loosed arrow after arrow at their foes. While he did that Kratos found a few gorgons waiting where some satyr archers had been standing and realized that it was a combination of sorts, they turn them to stone so the archers could break the intruders apart with their melee weapons, where he was thankful that he and Flurry didn't have to worry about that this time around. From there the pair tore through more of the satyrs that appeared in their way, warriors and archers, but it hardly mattered to both warriors as Kratos unleashed Atlas' Quake on them and crushed each one into the walls, while at the same time Flurry faded in and out of reality as she struck her foes with her phantom attacks, the ones that they had no chance of tracking. The interesting thing was that there was lava around the gaps between different sections of this part of the temple, though the good aspect of such a thing, as the pair discovered, was that they formed good thermal vents that allowed them to glide through certain parts of the floor they were on, avoiding spinning spike hazards that the Fates had installed to kill people who got this far.

Flurry raised her eyebrow as they found the end of the path and found that it had brought them to a molten chamber, all while also finding that there was an urn on another level that they would have to get to so they could progress, which had to contain the ashes of the phoenix, so putting them in the lava was the key. With that in mind she also noticed the bodies of some skeletons, those that would attack her and her father if they were left alone, to which Flurry knocked each pile into the lava and burned them to cut down on the potential enemies that might come at them. Kratos found a passage off to the left, which was guarded by a sickle warrior that he turned to stone with his Gorgons' Eye, allowing them to find that the next chamber held a bunch of spikes that could be pulled down into the floor with the lever that was near the opening they walked through. Flurry noticed a wall they could crush with a few hits, which had one of the Fates' statues resting in a small indent, though the humorous thing was that she could break it open as her father pulled the lever, only for her to trap two more scythe warriors above the spikes, so when they rushed out their enemies were impaled with ease.

She also shattered a pair of chains that seemed important, as it seemed like they were linked to the spikes, and with the hazard taken care of they were able to obtain a fist sized blue gemstone from a dead soldier, spun the crank he was near for a few seconds, and then made their way down the passage again.

The chamber it brought them to happened to have a large phoenix statue on the other end that breathed fire at them very few moments, where Flurry raised her magic and formed a moveable barrier in front of them, opening the way for her father to open a barred door on the left and right sides of the area. The nymphs and scythe warriors that decided to get in the way were brought down by a number of arrows, though as Flurry did that Kratos also pulled the lever that was near the edge of the chamber, the gap that the phoenix statue rested in, which lowered a small platform that would allow them to move a statue onto one of two pressure plates. Instead of doubling back for a statue they had passed, because both warriors recalled seeing one on the way into this area, Kratos used the Oath Stone to place a copy on the plate that opened the gate leading to the urn, while Flurry stood on the second and kept the barrier up in front of the devices, which lowered a grapple point for her father to reach the urn. Once he was in place Flurry caught up to him as she dismissed her magic, allowing the barrier to fall down as they approached the urn and started to move it, only to find that it happened to be on a pressure plate and that removing it caused the platform to lower to the start of the area.

With that done Kratos moved it into a nearby slot as Flurry pulled the nearby lever, where a device moved over, clamped down on the urn, and then moved it over to the lava before dunking it into the molten material, though they did have to cut apart some minotaurs in the process. As that happened the phoenix was reborn in the central pillar of the exit, where they watched as it burst through the hollowed pillar in question and likely moved somewhere outside the palace, likely the area across from the massive statue, meaning they were one step closer to their end goal. After thinking about that both warriors used the thermals of the area to glide up to a circular staircase that headed up towards the main statue, though a number of basic undead legionnaires tried to attack them and Kratos ignored them as Flurry slashed them apart with the twinblade. At the top of the path the pair stood on a raised platform and pulled a lever, which ended up bringing them up to the main area again, where Kratos and Flurry found that the phoenix was struggling against a magical grasp above the center of the area, before Flurry inserted the gemstone into a door behind them and opened a new passage.

This one held the body of the slain soldier from earlier and a chain for them to use to climb up to the upper level, where the pair found that they could blow into the horn and Kratos did so without delay, freeing the phoenix so it could take out two massive stone statues and dropped them into the abyss, before the flaming bird landed on the large brazier they had seen previously.

"And now we can access another area... it never ends." Flurry remarked, as there was another area for her and her father to explore, before they could reach the phoenix, something that caused her father to nod his head in agreement as they started to make their way over to it.

On the other side they found yet another new chamber that required them to raise a wall so Kratos could climb up onto the ceiling and break some chains, where Flurry remained on the ground and found that there were no enemies, almost as if they were being allowed to rest before a powerful foe appeared. One of the chains revealed a pillar for them to use to force a break in the raised wall so they could get onto the platform, where Flurry crushed the undead legionnaires that came to deal with intruders, opening the way for her father to move the pillar into place. After that it was a simple matter to pull the pillar in, so the platform could move again, as Flurry smashed another chain to open a gate, revealing the way to a crank that caused the two platforms outside to raise and move into a new position, while opening the way for them to enter a small area with a second crank. That one just spun the grated wall around them into a new position, where both of them found their way to an incredibly dark chamber that didn't seem to have anything special for them, before Flurry held a hand out to stop her father for a time.

The reasoning for that was due to the fact that a magical sphere smashed into the glass wall to their left and entered the area, forming a magical dome around them as they glanced around for a moment, only to find that an image of Hecate and Athena appeared before them.

"Athena, Hecate, is something going on?" Kratos asked, as the only reason the other gods in their alliance would contact them would be to share some information with them while they were focusing on the Fates, which meant it had to be an important message to send them such a message.

I'm afraid so: Zeus has destroyed Sparta. Athena stated, something that caused the pair to pause for a moment, as while it had been a possibility they had talked about, and even planned for, it was another thing to hear that Zeus had gone off the deep end while they were making their way to the Fates.

Zeus has broken his own rules, as he did not have the backing of his followers when he assaulted your home, but none of the other gods are willing to call him out on that. Hecate added, reminding them of when Ares assaulted Athena's city, he did so without the backing of his mortal armies and used an army of monsters in their place, openly defying Zeus in the process, before she sighed as they noticed that the goddesses were in a room on a ship, Fortunately you don't have to worry about the people, Deimos, or Albis, as everyone is on the ships and we're departing for the furthest edge of Greece.

"Ships? What ships? We didn't..." Flurry started to ask, though in that moment she noticed something behind the pair, there was a human sized statue of a feline god, Apollo she realized, which caused the information, said and unsaid, to clink in her mind as she she understood what was going on, which caused her to smile, "Of course, Artemis and Apollo! They've been busy since the events of Argos, where we thought they were just trying to distance themselves to avoid Zeus from labeling them as traitors... Apollo must have seen that doom was coming, the very event we've been trying to stop, and convinced his sister, and both of their followers no doubt, to build vessels to get some people out before it starts."

You never cease to amaze me, Flurry. All of Sparta, plus Attica and Athens, are fleeing towards the point that Apollo says will be our safe haven. Athena said, where she had a faint smile on her face for a few moments, as Flurry was one of the smartest individuals in Greece, able to put things together with great ease and with little information, and she had put the pieces together in record time, before she rubbed her left arm for a few seconds, Kratos, Flurry... Apollo confirmed that all available paths lead to war with Olympus, so... so do whatever you need to do to stop Zeus.

Kratos and Flurry nodded as they faced the ground that would bring them to the phoenix, because the destruction of their home had just added more fuel to their inner fires, and they knew that once the Fates were dealt with they could finally face and bring down Zeus.